Mario Piperni on the Dream

I Have A Dream’ 50 Years Later

One hundred years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years after Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, the conservative wing of the Supreme Court saw it fitting to strike down key components of the Voting Rights Act which enabled the Republican Party to move forward on legislation which suppresses the black vote. Also, as Trayvon Martin’s parents know only too well, 50 years after King spoke of his dream, every child in America is still not judged on the content of their character alone.

That said, 50 years later, and in spite of the best efforts of the bigots and haters, the president of the United States is a black man serving out his second term. After 150 years of freedom and 50 years of civil rights, the struggle continues but there is no denying that King’s dream is more real today than it’s ever been.